What's to like: The paparazzi glued to scandals, people intoxicated by wealth, fame, and power, and heartbreak as an inevitable part of love.
If you ever want to understand the lengths a person might go to protect those they love and everything they’ve worked for, this book is for you. It begins at Vivant, a magazine firm, where a former Hollywood icon, Evelyn Hugo, reaches out to do an article with a relatively new writer, Monique Grant. Despite Vivant suggesting other, more experienced writers, Evelyn insists on Monique for the job. The article is assumed to be about an auction of Evelyn’s gowns to benefit the American Breast Cancer Foundation, but Monique is also instructed to explore the most sensational part of Evelyn’s life—her seven husbands.
Monique Grant, a biracial woman who has worked hard to reach a place like Vivant, was plucked from obscurity after her previous article on physician-assisted suicide caught their attention. Since joining Vivant, however, she’s had little opportunity to tackle such weighty topics. She’s also facing personal struggles, going through a divorce and questioning her path. Now, given the chance of a lifetime with Evelyn, Monique is baffled as to why this opportunity came to her.
Evelyn Hugo, now in her 80s, rose to fame in the 1950s and left Hollywood in the 1980s. She’s known not just for her beauty and daring choice of roles, but also for her seven marriages. As Monique begins the project, Evelyn reveals that she doesn’t want to do just an article with Vivant—she wants Monique to write a tell-all book covering her entire life and her choices, no holds barred (yes, including the seven husbands).
The book unfolds in seven sections, each delving into one of Evelyn’s marriages, starting with her escape from Hell’s Kitchen through her first marriage. We witness Evelyn’s deep friendship with Harry Cameron, a producer who becomes her soulmate and closest confidant, and her marriage to Don Adler, a legacy actor who introduces her to the highs and lows of Hollywood. She also encounters Celia St. James, a talented method actor whose love and unwavering support show Evelyn what true intimacy is (I won’t spoil it any further for you). Through her marriages and relationships with Mick Riva, Rex North, Harry Cameron, Max Girard, and Robert Jamison, Evelyn’s complexity and ambition reveal the depths of her choices and sacrifices.
The book’s characters are richly drawn, and every action that Evelyn takes feels justified, even as it challenges the reader’s moral compass. As Evelyn speaks, the spotlight naturally shifts to her, captivating Monique, who is gradually consumed by Evelyn’s story—and the reason Evelyn chose her. This revelation, while deeply unfair to Monique, is one Evelyn regrets but cannot feel guilty about.
This novel offers a nuanced look into the complexity of human choices. “Who was the love of Evelyn’s life?”—the answer awaits in this remarkable book by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Favorite line: “Heartbreak is loss. Divorce is a piece of paper.”
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